


Binary System

by EmeraldTulip



Series: Curiosity Voyage [8]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Gen, One Shot, Post-Canon, Sibling Bonding, Step-siblings, Twins, sharing a birthday
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-26
Updated: 2019-07-26
Packaged: 2020-07-20 02:02:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19984234
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmeraldTulip/pseuds/EmeraldTulip
Summary: In their new town, the kids at school call themthe twins.or:El doesn't have a birthday. Will is more than willing to share.





	Binary System

**Author's Note:**

> I am SO READY for the byers twins you have no idea  
> first section occurs two months after the battle of starcourt. the second section occurs around a year later.  
> I hope you enjoy!

El doesn’t know her birthday. This first comes to her attention on Jonathan’s eighteenth—a month before the move. Hop never really talked about his own and she herself doesn’t have any records, so she really has no idea.

So when Will asks her to help him make Jonathan a present, she has to ask.

“When is my birthday?” she says, and Will’s hand falters as it grips a green crayon.

“I…” he frowns. “I don’t know,” he admits after a moment. “Mom would have said something if she knew.”

“Oh.” She takes the crayon from him, writing the words _Happy Birthday!_ on the card in big block letters.

Will gently takes it back after she’s done. “Hey. Why don’t we get you one?”

El grins, amused. “How does that work? I was only born on one day, we can’t just pick.”

“Well, why not?” Will argues, setting aside the card, and El admits it’s a good argument. “Come on. What are some important days?”

“Halloween,” El says, completely seriously, and Will cracks up.

“Yeah, but you can’t just _make_ your birthday _Halloween_ ,” he argues. “It doesn’t mean anything!”

“It means candy,” El says stubbornly, because Halloween is the best day.

Will laughs again. “Sure, but then no one will be able to come to your party; they’ll all be out trick-or-treating!”

“I get a party?” she asks, because she’s only seen those on TV. Hopper had always warned her to stay low, but now…

She shakes the thought. It’s been months, now, she’s finally becoming okay again.

“Of course,” Will says, like it’s obvious. “My mom will make you a cake and you’ll get presents, it’ll be fun!” He smiles at her, and El pokes the corner of his eye where crinkles form. He scrunches his nose and bats her hand away. “ _El_! What are other important days? Important to _you_?”

El ponders that question for a moment. There was the day that Mike, Lucas, and Dustin found her in the woods—but that was also when Will disappeared. And when Hopper had brought home her papers, but that wound still stings.

“When is your birthday?” she asks.

Will lifts an eyebrow. “March twenty-second.”

“That’s it,” El declares. “March twenty-second.”

Something goes soft in Will’s gaze—like the gold flecks in his eyes went molten. “Are you sure?” he says. “You could have a day all to yourself. You don’t mind sharing?”

“No.” She really doesn’t. In fact, there’s comfort in the thought that she can nearly rewrite history to be even closer to her new brother. “Do you?”

“Of course not,” Will answers. “I would be honored to share a birthday with you.”

* * *

(In their new town, the kids at school call them _the twins_. El can understand how they could jump to that conclusion: they share a birthday, they look very similar, and they’re rarely apart.

El is extremely good at math, it turns out. Her limited vocabulary does nothing to hinder her grasp on numbers, something that seems to both annoy and delight Will to no end. He himself is fairly well-versed in the subject, but he has nowhere near the natural affinity for it that she does. They sit together in math, and in advanced chemistry, and physics.

Joyce has been good to her—upon their enrollment she ensured that Will is in almost all of her classes, save for Intro to World History and Remedial English. In those two forty-five minute slots, it is all too common for the teacher to become somewhat frustrated, because El is used to having Will fill in sentences for her.

“Miss Byers,” Mr. Browne says one day as students shuffle loudly down the halls, scrambling to their next class. “Please remember that your brother is not your literal other half.”

And he is right. El doesn’t have an other half, because she’s complete on her own. But Will is her compliment, the person who makes her _better_. He knows what she’s done and he loves her anyway. He accepts her as a sister in spite of— _because_ of—the pain they have both gone through. Even without powers, she feels like they have met somewhere in that void in a way that intertwines them irrevocably.

She wouldn’t have it any other way.)

**Author's Note:**

> comments and kudos are, as always, appreciated.  
> find me on tumblr, my main is [@perseusjaxon](https://perseusjaxon.tumblr.com) and my writing blog is [@lowriting](https://lowriting.tumblr.com)!


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